By Jun Ji-hye
The South Korean military has secured technologies necessary to develop a special bomb containing carbon fibers, designed to disable North Korea’s electrical power systems in case of war, sources said Monday.
The technical development, led by the state-run Agency for Defense Development (ADD), has reached its final stage, and once the relevant budget is allocated, the nation would be able to make such a bomb, they added.
“All technologies to develop a graphite bomb have been secured,” the source said, noting the nation can build the bombs “anytime.”
The so-called blackout bomb is a nonlethal weapon designed to short out electrical transformers powering the North’s nuclear and missile facilities. The bomb works by spreading chemically treated carbon filaments to short-circuit and disrupt the electrical supply.
The weapon is one of the key parts forming the nation’s Kill Chain system, designed to carry out a pre-emptive strike against Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile facilities if Seoul is faced with an imminent threat.
Seoul is planning to complete the Kill Chain program by the early 2020s.
The Ministry of National Defense had included 500 million won ($436,000) for the project when requesting next year’s defense budget, but it was rejected by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, sources said.
They added that military officials are working to secure this funding in the upcoming National Assembly budget deliberation.